To want to hear your stories from customer facing jobs?

[TillyMint81]

I work in retail. Customers are for the most part lovely but there are some absolute idiots out there.
Like the one who brought back a pack of bacon because it said four slices and it had five. Or the one who complained about the oranges on Bogof because she only wanted one pack not two. and, oh, by the way, could she have the free one?
We also had a bloke who would walk round looking for low stock on the buy one get one free lines. If he found one that was down to one item he would ask if we had any in stock. If we did he would walk away but if we didn't he wanted that one for free..

She paid for her shopping very quietly and left, no apology. Her husband and daughter looked really embarrassed all the way through.
She did give me a fifthy look when I said "do you need any help to your car Madame?" Her husband actually grinned at me

Serves her right the miserable mare! I hate entitled people. We have a lot of entitled teenagers in and out of our shop during the holidays. 😡

I love "sieve the milk"

Former hotel receptionist here. Worst example is very outing but along the lines of katyazamo's example with a different racial group and event in the news. It was awful.

One of my favourites was a woman who'd booked a package through a holiday company which included tickets to a nearby theme park- one of those sites where you prepay everything to the company. She came to the desk with a (fairly justified) complaint about her room, then starting complaining about the fact that the bus to the theme park wasn't included. I explained that a) the bus wasn't connected to the hotel in any way and b) if she thought the website was misleading, she should contact the company she booked through whose website it was. She looked at me like I had three heads for not addressing a complaint about something that wasn't anything to do with us. She then had some issue about the park tickets being advertised differently and I politely explained, again, that she needed to speak to the company as they had simply booked the accommodation with us. She got all annoyed again and her parting shot was, "And nobody told me it was Easter! I've probably paid more because it's Easter!" She just looked at me like she expected me to do something about that as I tried to formulate a response that didn't end in off- wtf did she expect me to do? Agree to put a flashing message on another company's website warning about public holidays? Did she want the receptionist when she checked in- her first point of contact with us- to tell her it was Easter even though at that point the trip was booked and paid for and she presumably knew it was Easter? The mind boggles...

Years ago during school and college I worked in a little chef.

I remember this one guy losing his tempter over having to pay 50 quid for steak! Do go to the little chef for frozen steak then yell when it's gross and overpriced.

I've worked in many customer facing roles. Once a colleague in a cafe was shouted at and towered over by a man for doing her job and stacking the chairs when it was 20 mins past closing time. I told him shouting would not be tolerated and he continued. I asked him to leave and he refused almost screaming at this point, I ended up calling the police.
Working in the York branch of waitrose a customer complained that out Yorkshire accents were "too common" and he "expected better from Waitrose". However, the managers there wore even worse. The store manager would scream at us and kick cages around the warehouse and even throw stock at people.
Also when I was 16 working in Morrisons a manage probably 30 years my senior forced me to show him my scar from my appendix removal as he didn't believe me and told me I would lose my job for lying
I now work in care which I love and would never work in customer service again unless I was desperate.

I worked in customer services for a water company. Customers used to write in to dob in their friends/family/neighbours if they were doing something they shouldn't be (like if they had a swimming pool but weren't on a water meter was the most common).

One day we received a 100-odd page dossier where this guy had noted down all the dates and times he'd seen his neighbours outside drinking water or watering their garden or doing anything else involving water because his neighbours weren't on a water meter. He ended the dossier by offering to start taking photographs if we needed more proof. Bonkers.

Working in a chain 'restaurant' (you know the type, some have the kids play area kind of thing, overpriced microwaved stuff), guy comes in asking to order the chicken.
Me: "Sure thing, which chicken dish would you like?"
Him: "The chicken"
Me: "well, we have... (scans menu, there are 12 chicken dishes) ...a few dishes with chicken, our half roast chicken is quite popular... is it that one?"
Him: "its chicken. I had it last week" (had seen him few times before, he should be quite familiar with the menu)
Me: "can you see it on the menu, or maybe describe it to me & I'll see which one matches".
Him: "its CHICKEN"
.
Me: "I can ask my manager if there was a chicken special on last week..."

I worked in retail and customer service for years, these have made me laugh.
But I am happy to report that I have blocked all the bad customer memories successfully as I can remember any!

I also work in retail and most of my customers are locals, regulars and absolute stars, god love 'em.

It's the tourists that tend to behave as though they have never been in a shop before; trying to hand me each individual item to scan or stacking them up on the scales in front of me, blocking the scanner rather than putting their basket up on the counter so I can unpack and scan.

The worst ones though are the ones that come in and snap '20 JPS' at me. When I ask 'JPS what? Reds, blues, greens? Superkings or king size?' they then say 'I don't know, they aren't for me, I don't smoke!' So I get out my crystal ball and give them 20 reds (it's nearly always reds), and they look at the plain packaging that we all have to carry now and say 'oh no, that's not the right ones, they're in a white packet.'

It can sometimes take ten minutes to sell cigarettes to some people, whilst I quietly lose my faith in humanity. But no one dares call me stupid (I've been in local papers recently with my 'other job' and my degree was brandished about there fairly freely....)

I work in my local shop

We had a complaint from a woman because the seeds from the dandelions on a bit of grass to the side of our shop (owned by the council and nothing to do with us) were blowing across the road into her garden

Zaphod

Oh the ones that bark "20 JPS" or whatever at you! So rude

My favourite was the guy that just said "20 fags!"

Yes of course Sir, what kind?

"I dunno, smokey smokey"

Complete with smoking action

When I rule the world, national service will include a mandatory stint in a customer facing role

Pp might enjoy the Timewaster Letters books - they are letters that are deliberately a bit bonkers, but are hilarious and not as bonkers as many of the RL complaints that have crossed my desk over the years

I had a lady come into my salon and ask for quotes and what she wanted. It was £25 in total.

I scheduled her in for 2 days after the initial meeting.

I did the appointment and went over to the till, she placed £10 on the counter and said that's for me and tried walking off. I told her it was another £15 she owed. She thought when I had quoted her £25 she didn't think I was being serious and thought £10 was well worth what she had done

I've had ladies kick off with me on a Saturday at like 4pm because I can't fit them in to do a colour/highlights including a cut and blow on their extremely long hair because I close at 5.

I could write a book on some of the interactions I've had at my salon. I obviously get some lovely customers aswell!

Oh god the horrors of my five years working front line for a conservation charity are swimming around my head right now. Too many to list, and some of them too awful and outing. Suffice to say, most visitors to this particular charity are lovely, but there is a huge percentage of entitled middle class twunts out there who think they can be horrible.

Anyway, I fear I will show up on one of these threads one day with my classic (although not rude or mean) antics. I went to Waterstones to buy a book for husband's birthday. Brain frazzled from long day at work, not feeling well. Asked the lady if they had 'any books with facts in?' She goggled at me like I had two heads... I swear to god I am an intelligent person.

Issued a refund for a joint of ( burnt by customer) pork.
Must be the shops fault.
A bag of pork mince that apparently was off.
No original packaging or bar code.
One pregnancy test from a box of two ( as apparently it didn't work)
A plug refund for a product that wasn't a plug.
Just in the last couple of days...

Did she pay the balance kungfupanda?

Oh and I also received a burn from a customer which I still have the scar from 9 years later! We had a hot food counter with heat lamps above it. I was plating up what she had asked for and apparently she wanted a different slice of bacon and forced my arm up to the heat lamp. I had to scream to get her to let go of me.

senator she paid, but let the whole salon know she would never return again because I had ripped her off.

She expected a wash,cut, blow and an updo on shoulder length hair for £10!!!!

Bet you were devastated.

Where's the teachers thread op speaks of?

You will all enjoy Not Always Right and its sister sites.

But have a tissue ready for this story about a photographer.

In my teens I worked on Saturdays in a scruffy chain shoe shop. One woman came in, wanting 'a dress shoe'. I asked polite questions re heel height, colour she was after and she turned andd shouted across the shop to the manager that she wanted someone who knew what she was talking about.

To this day I have no idea what she meant by 'a dress shoe'.

I once had a customer who ordered s pizza over the phone. When she came to pick it up she was angry that it had tomato sauce on it (not ketchup, the base tomato sauce). She didn't like tomato sauce and had she known we were going to put it on the pizza she would have asked us to substitute prawns instead??!! I tried to explain that prawns cost way more than tomato sauce so that wouldn't have worked...

Different restaurant, two old ladies ordered a pot of tea. Quiet time of day, I filled the pot from the boiler, carried it over to them immediately. They called me back to say it wasn't hot enough. They lifted off the lid to show me how cold the tea was. Steam billowed out of the pot. They didn't back down. I replaced it. With water from the same boiler , carried over to them with exactly the same time difference as previously...

My boss told me one in ten people come out just to complain

As an ex tattoo and body piercing studio owner I have many many customer stories which would make you laugh/cry/boak.

Ha, Mrs Hathaway - you just beat me to recommending that website!

Some of the highlights from working at HMV:

1. The woman who kicked off because she'd had to come all the way back into central London because the cashier had forgotten to put her freebie in the carrier bag with the CD she'd bought - we had a sign on the counter saying 'Free air guitar with every copy of The Best Air Guitar Album In the World...Ever'.

2. The woman who wanted 'that film, you know, the one about the girl on the ferry. The tart flick.' A bit of questioning later revealed it to be Titanic, which had come out in the cinemas the day before.

3. The drunk guy on the mobility scooter who managed to drive at high speed through the scaffolding in front of the shop and ram the window. When the scooter was extracted, there was clearance of about an inch between the handlebars and the gap he went through.

4. The American customer who ordered a commemorative limited edition box set of the Alien films and then emailed threatening to sue us because we'd shipped his order and therefore charged his card four months too early. No sir, in the UK a release date of 09/05/xx means it's coming out on the 9th of May, not the 5th of September.

5. Not quite a customer, but having to tell an IBM engineer who was on his way to one of the central London stores to fix a computer that he wouldn't be able to access it for two hours because Madonna was using that office as a changing room before a personal appearance.